Many factors impact sleep

The opening statement and its alleged rationale in a recent letter to the editor titled, "School should have later time," really caught my attention!

An article titled, "Schools consider later start to help drowsy teen focus," by Marissa Cevallos of the San Jose Mercury News, featuring Dr. Shannon Sullivan's study at Stanford University was used as reference. It cites data that appears disjointed and fragmented, which I feel supports the equally fragmented opinion published.

Paragraph 11 of the Mercury article states that 16.5 percent of students in "a Kansas county" that moved start time forward by one hour realized fewer sleep deprived causes in accidents as compared to a 7.8 percent increase in accidents due to drowsiness in "the rest of the state."

The comparative data provided an unequal distribution to validate the assumption cited in that study. County vs. the state, was one of several inconsistencies observed in the Sunday article, that was referenced in the opinion. Readers desiring to review the article can view it in the Feb. 14 edition of the U-B, section A, page 7. For those interested further for a probable root cause for sleep deprivation can review an interesting article titled, "Kids gobble up technology; parents get heartburn," by Leanne Italie of The Associated Press. featuring Dr. Russell Hyken, that ironically was featured just below the Mercury News article. It presented an in-depth study of a possible link to the root cause of diagnosed sleep deprivation and mood shifts in a number of cases studied.

Sleep patterns can also be affected physiologically through improper diet, beverage consumption, unhealthy addictive habits and mind-altering entertainment/recreation. A noted researcher and expert on sleep, Dr. William C. Dement, of the Stanford University Sleep Center has been studying sleep patterns and habits for over a half century and is an author of numerous text books that are comprehensive and academic, citing scores of case studies worthy of personal awareness study.

As a closing thought, I found the published opinion to be very shallow with ridiculous remedies, closing with what I'll assume was a facetious remark that I found quite amusing, regarding a strong consideration for "home schooling," which I feel is in a complete different league, when compared to public education "start time."